I'll use this platform to review books I've read (and movies I've seen and are still worth watching), advertise my published books, say a few words about writing and reveal something of my world.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Some Christmas cheer

Mary
was born on Christmas day.

Her
father and mother loved her.

They
were very happy that she came on Christmas day

Because
Mary’s last name was “Christmas.”

Mary
was happy on her second and third Christmas days because she was

Always
reminded of her name when relatives

Would
smile and say “Merry Christmas.”

On
her fourth Christmas a stranger said “Merry Christmas.”

The
stranger had a large belly, a red nose and white whiskers.

“How
did he know my name?” Mary asked her mother.

“I
think he looks like Santa Clause, don’t you?” Mary’s mother

said
to Mary as they walked to the store.

A
very large woman with a purple and green hat said, “Merry Christmas.”

“How
did she know my name?” Mary asked her mother.

“A
very good guess, I suppose,” her mother said, smiling.

Mary
held her mother’s hand as they went into the store.

They
shopped and looked at the Christmas lights and listened to the Christmas music.

“Merry
Christmas,” the cashier said to Mary and her mother at the checkout counter.

Mary
smiled and said, “Yes, that’s my name.”

The
cashier smiled back and continued running their groceries through the scanner.

On
Mary’s fifth Christmas her mother said that she was

Almost
old enough to start school.

“Will
school be like home?” Mary asked.

“A
little different, but you will get to meet lots of other children,” her mother
said.

When
Mary was five and a half her mother took her to school.

Mary
looked at all the other boys and girls. They stared at her.

Mary’s
mother talked with the teacher. Her mother said that she would come for Mary as
soon as kindergarten got out. Mary said good-bye to her mother.

“Welcome
to Martin Luther King, junior elementary school, children,” Mary’s teacher
said. Her teacher smiled and said “My name is Miss Singleton.” She wrote her
name on the green board in the front of the room.

“Now children,” Miss Singleton said. “I have
to take roll. That means I will call your name and you will answer here or present.” Miss Singleton opened her roll book and said, “Mary
Christmas.”

“Merry
Christmas,” the class answered, all but Mary.

“Present,”
Mary said. The other children giggled.

Miss
Singleton tapped her pen on the roll book. “Now children, it’s a long way to
Christmas, isn’t it?

“Yes,
Miss Singleton,” the class said.

“After
I finish taking roll, we will have a recess.”

Outside
Mary wanted to play chase with the other children, but the boy with the red
shirt said, “No, it’s not Christmas yet.” The other children laughed at Mary.

Mary
stood by the slide and watched the other children laugh as they all climbed
through the plastic tube that led to the slide. Mary wanted to play with them
so much she almost cried.

The
bell rang and all the children lined up to go back to the classroom.

At
the end of the day Mary’s mother drove up to the school and Mary ran to the car
to get in.

“How
was your first day?” her mother asked on the way home.

“How
come our name has to be Christmas?” Mary asked.

“Well,”
her mother said. “A long time ago your great, great grandfather changed his
name from Kintermas to Christmas and that’s how you got your
last name.”

Mary
looked out of the car window at some of the other children as they walked away
from school.

“If
I was Kintermas they’d let me play chase,” Mary said.

“The other children wouldn’t let you play
chase?”

“No,”
Mary said. “One boy said I wasn’t the real Christmas.”

“Whether
or not you are the real Christmas, and you are,” Mary’s mother said. “The
children should have let you play chase.”

“I
had to stand and watch them play,” Mary said.

“Where’s Rex?” Mary asked, as she looked
around the house for her dog.

“Your
father took him to the vet. Rex had something wrong with him.”

“They
kept laughing at me,” Mary said.

“They
shouldn’t have,” Mary’s mother said.

“Is anybody home,” Mary heard her father shout
from downstairs. Mary put her doll Emily on her bed and went downstairs to say
hello to her father.

“How was your first day at school?’ Mary’s
father asked. He was taller than her mother and had started growing a beard
that tickled Mary’s face when he kissed her on the cheek.

“The
other children wouldn’t let me play chase,” Mary said.

“Well,
that was their loss,” her father said, sitting down in his big chair. “Did that
bother you Mary?”

“They
said I wasn’t the real Christmas.”

“You’re as real as the twenty-fifth of
December, that’s for sure,” Mary’s father said.

“If I was still named Kintermas they would
have let me play,” Mary said.

Mary’s
father frowned, then smiled. “I think they were just jealous, that’s all. They
were probably thinking that you’d have Christmas every day while they’d only
have it once a year.”

“I just want to play with them.”

Mary’s
father shrugged. “You’ll just have to find a way to do that tomorrow.”

The
next day at recess Mary went up to the boy with the red shirt who said she
couldn’t play chase. Mary was a little taller than he was.

“Is
that the same shirt you wore yesterday?” Mary asked.

“What
if it is?” the boy said.

“I
like red,” Mary said. “It reminds me of Christmas.”

The
boy looked at Mary. He looked at his shirt. “I guess you can play chase.”

Mary
joined the other children who ran away from the girl who was “it.”